SKS Microfinance raises Rs 200 cr through securitisation

Mumbai: SKS Microfinance today said it has raised Rs 200 crore by selling loans to a state-run bank through a securitisation deal.

This is the first major deal in the troubled microfinance sector after the Reserve Bank issued revised securitisation guidelines for non-banking finance companies in August.

As part of the deal, SKS, which is the only listed MFI, said, it has downloaded the receivables from microloans extended to over 2,60,000 rural women to a special purpose vehicle and pass through certificates, have been purchased by a public sector bank.

In the June quarter, its loss stood at Rs 218.7 crore. Reuters

The name of the bank is not revealed. Late September, leading micro-loan player Basix sold as much as 92 percent of its stake to a consortium of 19 banks led by Sidbi in a Rs 652-crore debt recast deal, which involved conversion of Rs 500 crore of this debt into equity.

"The present transaction generates liquidity of Rs 200 crore for SKS and also brings in concomitant capital relief," said its chief financial officer S Dilli Raj said in the statement.

Notably, 26 percent of the pool is from the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe entrepreneurs, 16 percent from minorities and the remaining 58 percent from women belonging to the Other Backward Castes, the company said.

The debt pool has an A1+ rating from Care and comprises receivables from 14 non-Andhra states.SKS has completed 16 assignment/securitisation deals worth Rs 1,850 crore since October 2010, when the Andhra Pradesh Microfinance Institutions (Regulation of Money-lending) Ordinance was issued.

In addition, it has raised Rs 2,000 core debt in the past three quarters. In the past quarter it had done a Rs 230-crore qualified institutional placement and Rs 33.5-crore preferential issue. Following the Andhra Pradesh crisis, SKS, which has investors like Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy, had to write off its entire Andhra portfolio running into Rs 1,500 crore.

In the September quarter, SKS reported a loss of Rs 262 crore, which was lower compared to Rs 384 crore loss in the year ago period, as its net interest income declined 29.5 percent to Rs 43 crore from Rs 61 crore.